Supplemental Insurance


Do You Need Supplemental Insurance?
There are many different kinds of insurance people may need to protect against what can go wrong in life. Unfortunately, not every insurance policy is adequate enough to protect against every possible expense. One way to guard against this possibility is by purchasing supplemental insurance.

What Is It?

Supplemental insurance is not purchased by itself. Instead, supplemental coverage is purchased to work in tandem with another existing insurance policy referred to as the primary policy. Unfortunately, sometimes insurance policies don’t cover every kind of expense or pay for everything that a policy holder may need. The supplemental policy is then used as a way to address these gaps in coverage of the first policy.

What Are the Major Kinds of Supplemental Coverage?

One of the most common forms of supplemental coverage is supplemental health insurance. Supplemental health insurance is designed to address expenses that will not be covered by a primary health insurance plan. For example, the primary plan may not pay for lost wages while a person is in the hospital. The supplemental plan, on the other hand, may do just that.

Another common variety of supplemental coverage is supplemental unemployment insurance. In many places like the United States, unemployment coverage is provided by the government to people who have lost their jobs to save them from going bankrupt while searching for a new place to work. However, this unemployment income will typically only pay a small percentage of a person’s previous salary. Supplemental unemployment insurance, on the other hand, may provide a much better financial cushion and help a person maintain the same standard of living they had before until they find new employment.

Who Should Purchase Supplemental Coverage?

Overall, supplemental policies are best for those that are at risk of having to pay out of pocket due to the limits of a primary policy. Read over your policy in detail to discover if there are any significant gaps in coverage that you are likely to encounter. There may be very good reasons to purchase supplemental coverage. If your existing coverage won’t pay for your medication, for example, you could use a supplemental plan to save money.